“Despite the passage of the Fair Housing Act almost 40 years ago, more than 4 million fair housing violations still occur each year. According to a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report released this April, a record number of Americans are reporting incidents of housing discrimination, with disability and race as the leading reasons for filing a complaint,” stated Congressman Al Green. “For many Americans the dream of owning a home is cut short by the more than 3.7 million fair housing violations that are committed solely against minority communities each year. Fair housing education and enforcement play a pivotal role in fighting this housing discrimination and increasing homeownership for people of color.
“The Federal Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) provides grants to nonprofits to provide education and outreach to real estate companies, agents and landlords about fair housing compliance and well as to consumers about their rights under the law. FHIP also funds enforcement efforts so that fair housing agencies can conduct investigations and test complaints of housing discrimination. Increasing this effort will allow fair housing organizations to better assist more individuals, the housing industry and communities in forming integrated neighborhoods, free from discrimination,” continued Congressman Green. “Discrimination can happen to anyone. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, or whether you have a Ph.D. or are a high school dropout. Discrimination doesn’t discriminate. We cannot deny that housing discrimination is a problem. We cannot deny that more needs to be done. That is why it is so important to fund the federal Fair Housing Initiatives Program. I am grateful to Chairman Obey, Subcommittee Chairman Olver, and Ranking Members Lewis and Knollenberg for working in a bipartisan fashion towards better ensuring that all Americans have equality of opportunity by bringing this bill to the House floor.